Sears Boosts Amazon Partnership To Include Batteries And Tires

Retail store chain Sears Holdings Company is extending its partnership with eCommerce giant Amazon to sell goods from the DieHard brand on the marketplace’s site.

The latest announcement builds on a partnership that began this past summer, CNBC reported Thursday (Dec. 14), one through which Sears announced it would sell appliances on the Amazon website. At the time, the retailer also announced the launch of its Kenmore Smart skill for Alexa, Amazon’s voice-activated virtual assistant. Kenmore Smart allows users to control appliances by voice.

“The Amazon platform is so broad and also focuses on the millennial generation,” Tom Park, president of Sears’ Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard brands, in a July interview about the initial partnership’s launch.

The millennial population is a target audience for Sears, and the company has been hopeful that the exposure through Amazon will help boost its sales.

According to the terms of the expanded Sears-Amazon partnership, DieHard battery-related items such as chargers and jump starters will be available immediately on Amazon’s website. In addition, beginning in early 2018, Sears will expand its Amazon-listed offerings to include DieHard branded tires and automobile batteries.

“Launching on Amazon.com will significantly expand the distribution and availability of the DieHard brand in the U.S., building on the success of our recent Kenmore appliances launch on Amazon.com,” said Park, in a statement about the partnership’s extension.

The web push comes as sales are slipping for the long-struggling retail company. Sears is shuttering some of its larger tangible assets and, at the same time, opening concept stores focused on specific niches like mattresses and appliances. In tandem with turnaround efforts, Sears extended the terms of a loan — to the tune of $400 million — to 2019. Additional borrowings will reportedly seek to cover obligations such as pension payments.